Dish · Nationwide
Plov (osh)
The centrepiece of any Uzbek meal: meat, onions and yellow carrots are cooked into a rich base in a kazan, then rice is steamed on top. UNESCO-listed since 2016.
Dish · Nationwide
Qozon kabob
Lamb and potatoes fried and then braised in a kazan: a simple, hearty dish of teahouses and outdoor feasts.
Photo: Shuhrataxmedov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Kebab without a skewer
Despite the name, qozon kabob is made in a cauldron rather than on a skewer. Lamb, usually ribs, is fried in hot oil or tail fat until well browned, then whole or roughly cut potatoes go in and everything braises under a lid until tender. Seasoning is minimal — salt, cumin, black pepper — and the dish is finished with onion rings and herbs.
Its cousin, chupon kabob or ‘shepherd’s kebab’, is, as the Gastronomic Association of Uzbekistan points out, not a kebab at all but meat and potatoes fried in oil, named after the shepherds who cooked it in the fields.
Where to try it
Qozon kabob appears on the menus of many teahouses and national-food canteens, usually at lunch. At garden and country gatherings it is cooked in a big kazan over an open fire. Eat it with achichuk, bread and green tea.
Dish · Tashkent (city), Tashkent Region
Tashkent plov
The capital’s style of plov: everything is fried first and the rice is mixed into the base; wedding plov adds kazy sausage, chickpeas, raisins and sometimes quail eggs.
Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand plov
A layered plov in which nothing is stirred: the rice stays pale, and the carrots and meat are served on top of it.
Dish · Bukhara
Bukhara plov and oshi sofi
Bukhara’s own plovs: oshi sofi, made with separately boiled and drained rice, and plov cooked with mung beans.
Dish · Fergana, Andijan +1
Fergana plov
The dark plov of the Fergana Valley: a bone, meat, onions and carrots are fried long and hard until the zirvak turns deep brown.
Dish · Khorezm
Khorezm plov
Khorezm’s plov tradition, including suzma palov, in which the rice is boiled separately and drained before it meets the zirvak.
Dish · Nationwide
Samsa
Flaky pastries baked on the inner wall of a tandoor, filled with hand-chopped lamb, tail fat and onion — or wild greens in spring and pumpkin in autumn.
Dish · Jizzakh
Jizzakh samsa
Jizzakh’s culinary calling card: a large dome-shaped samsa made from three layers of dough, packed with lamb and tail fat and dipped in sunflower oil.
Dish · Nationwide
Kabob (shashlik)
Skewered meat grilled over embers — lamb, beef, meat with tail fat, liver, minced qiyma (lula) kabob — served with onion, vinegar and hot bread.
Dish · Bukhara
Gijduvan kebab
The famous minced-meat kebab of Gijduvan in Bukhara Region: the meat is minced twice, frozen, chopped and pressed onto skewers.